The twilight language explores hidden meanings and synchromystic connections via onomatology (study of names) and toponymy (study of place names). This blog further investigates "name games" and "number coincidences" found in news and history. Examinations are also found in my book The Copycat Effect (NY: Simon and Schuster, 2004).

Monday, July 13, 2009

Sun God Polito Killed By Lightning

A Ukrainian politician who had tried to revive an ancient pagan cult was killed by lightning on Saturday, July 4, 2009, while on a fishing trip. Did this occur about the same time John A. Keel passed away in the USA?

Vasily Chervoni (above) was on a fishing trip near the village of Derazhnoye and suffered a direct lightning hit during a thunderstorm. He was taken to a hospital where he died shortly afterwards, the Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda reported on Monday, July 6, 2009.

The newspaper noted that the late politician was a close friend of Ukrainian President Yushchenko and had at one time occupied the governor’s post in Rovno Region. A former activist in the Soviet youth movement Comsomol, Chervoni started an independent political career in the early 1990s with radical Ukrainian nationalists. At some point, Chervoni joined the religious movement Runvera – a Ukrainian sect that seeks revival of obscure ancient cults, in particular, the worship of the sun god Dažbog.

In 1992, Chervoni was excommunicated from the Russian Orthodox Church. When he was retired from the governor’s post in 2006, all Orthodox churches in Rovno Region had a special prayer thanking the Lord for deliverance.

The Sun God: Dažbog

Dažbog (above) was one of the major gods of Slavic mythology, most likely a solar deity and possibly a cultural hero. He is one of several authentic Slavic gods, mentioned by a number of medieval manuscripts, and one of the few Slavic gods for which evidence of worship can be found in all Slavic nations.

While the meaning of Dažbog’s name is not completely clear (as is the case with most other Slavic gods), taking into account several different versions of the name, most scholars agree the root dažd- or daj- is derived from root of the verb dati "to give."

Thus, according to most scholars, Dažbog would be "giving god," "god-giver," "god-donor," deus dator. This is particularly interesting since the Proto-Slavic word for god, *bagu (> Common Slavic *bogъ), the suffix of Dažbog's name, is argued either to be of Iranian origin (being related to Indo-Iranian etymons such as Old Persian baga, Sanskrit bhaga), or being semantically influenced by Iranian source, both being ultimately derived from PIE root *bʰag-, whose reflexes in both Slavic and Indo-Iranian came to mean both "deity" and "wealth, share."

Translated literally, Dažbog would be "giver of fortune." This echoes the ancient Indo-European concept that the deity is, in essence, an entity which gives wealth and abundance, an indication, perhaps, that Dažbog is a relic from common Proto-Indo-European religion, or even that this was not a name for any particular Slavic god, but a general epithet of a deity.

The Slavic god Svarog had two sons: Svarožič, who represented fire on earth, and Dažbog, who represented fire in the sky and was associated with Sun. Svarog was believed to have forged the Sun and have given it to his son Dažbog to carry it across the sky.

Pagan Slavs left their footprints across the region in a significant number of toponyms whose names can be associated with them and by discoveries of multi-headed statues in various Slavic lands. For example, the four-headed god Svantevit had a white horse and is represented by obelisks such as these.

Keelian Connection

I'm reminded that during the mid-1960s, John A. Keel became literally obsessed with collecting Fortean news clippings of bizarre deaths of people, livestock, and other animals killed by lightning. He would send copies of such newspaper articles to me and others, and requested that his correspondents forward any such events mentioned in local papers. For a time, Keel privately published a newsletter, Anomaly News, in which he would fill the pages with little offset copied news items of all such lightning deaths he could discover.

It is intriguing that Keel would die in New York City on July 3rd and Chervoni's lightning event is listed as July 4th. Of course, with the different time zones, maybe, in some strange Fortean twist of fate, the lightning strike and Keel's death occurred more closely in time that we realize. John would have been happy with this bit of synchronicity.

Here's weird but true: Today I was listening to this old interview I did with Keel and he tells this story about how in the 60s Uganda was getting so many UFOs that Idi Amin had his ambassador say something publicly about it to U Thant at the UN. I thought then, "UFOs? Uganda? U Thant? UN?" and now this about the Ukrainian politician.

Veddy interesting...Paganism in Europe (eastern, especially) is often tied to the ultra-right wing. It may well be that this was a political hit fed to the press as a lightning strike. Small lake, metal skiff, throw a couple electrical cables in- boom, instant divine wrath. Plus, there's the whole issue of Russia bumping off its enemies lately as well.

I have this strange theory that MJ was a NASA-like sacrifice. (He even caught fire on Jan 27 1984 which connects with Nasa sacrifice apollo 1 (aldrin) and challenger) I see this timeframe as a transition point between the first apollo missions and the return to the moon with the constellation program.

Nasa just launches LRO and LCROSS which mark the begining of the return.

MJ died on Mid-Summer Night/Day and thus can be seen as a Holly King.

Anyways the last man to walk on the moon was Eugene Cernan of Apollo 17. In fiction the last man to walk on the moon was apollo 17 astronaut steve austin (played by lee majors, whose one-time wife farrah fawcett-majors died the same day as MJ)

I was trying to figure out what Eugene Cernan's name might mean.

It seems it is slavic and means black or dark.

It comes from CHERNO

that led me to discover that there is an old slavic mythology that has 2 gods , a white god and a black god. Belobog and Chernobog. I read about them at wiki.

Belobog and Chernobog also tie in with this same slavic mythology you are highlighting in this article.

Also interesting is that the lightning strike itself plays into the myth in the greek version.

The myth of Phaëton. He tries to drive the chariot of the sun. Zeus strikes him with the thunderbolt knocking him out of the chariot and plunging him into water, the river eridanos.

strangely enough, this myth relates to nasa via the kennedy's.JFK who promissed to put a man on the moon, was killed in chariot by a bullet(bolt) from the sky(6th floor) While Apollo 11 was on its way to the moon, Ted Kennedy's chariot ended up in the water.

Yes, many Christians are gloating. However I recall from "Russia is Burning" by Cathy A. Frierson, that Russian folk belief says that a man struck by lightning has been made immortal in heaven. Elsewhere too, it was said that one killed by a thunderstorm heading west is a favorite of the thunderer. The Ossetes had a similar belief.

As a Slavic pagan, I think the Orthodox Church is in no place to gloat. How many churches have been struck by lightning?

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About Me

Investigator of human and animal mysteries since 1960. Swamp Thing character "Coleman Wadsworth" in #4:7 and more in #4:8, is a tribute.
Author of over 35 books, including The Unidentified (1975), Mysterious America (1983/2007), Suicide Clusters (1987), Cryptozoology A to Z (1999), Bigfoot! (2003), The Copycat Effect (2004), and field guides.
Educated in anthropology-zoology at SIU-Carbondale, and psychiatric social work at Simmons College School of Social Work. Began doctoral work in anthropology (Brandeis University) and family violence (UNH). Taught at NE universities (1980 to 2003), while concurrently a senior researcher at the Muskie School (1983 to 1996), before retiring to write, lecture, consult, & open museum. Popular documentary course was taught for 23 semesters; appeared on C2C, The Larry King Show, MonsterQuest, Lost Tapes, In Search Of, and other tv programs.
Loren Coleman is a dedicated father (Caleb, Malcolm, Des), cryptozoologist, media consultant, and baseball fan.